


plenty of fire

by plotholes_and_paradoxes



Series: trial by fire [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Healing, Protective Azula (Avatar), Zuko's Scar (Avatar), azula refused to acknowledge that she has friends, mai and ty lee are good friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:21:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plotholes_and_paradoxes/pseuds/plotholes_and_paradoxes
Summary: Azula is not expecting to see the Mai and Ty Lee sitting at Zuko’s bedside. Zuko, with his face wrapped in bandages and his body so still. Zuko has never been this still in his life — not even when father burned him to stop his fidgeting. Not even in his sleep, back when Azula was young enough to climb into his bed after a nightmare.(Aka, Azula's friends reassure her that she did the right thing. Unfortunately, Azula refuses to acknowledge that she has friends. After all, friends are weaknesses.)
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: trial by fire [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837981
Comments: 11
Kudos: 493





	plenty of fire

Azula doesn’t like to share. Mai and Ty Lee are hers and hers alone. She earned them. She convinced Mai’s mother to let her learn knife throwing. She got Ty Lee out of the conformity of her family. They are her allies and she worked hard to cultivate them. 

So she is not expecting to see the two of them sitting at Zuko’s bedside. Zuko, with his face wrapped in bandages and his body so still. Zuko has never been this still in his life — not even when father burned him to stop his fidgeting. Not even in his sleep, back when Azula was young enough to climb into his bed after a nightmare. 

Azula considers, for a moment, that they could have killed Zuko. She wonders if they considered it. But then she sees the way Mai is brushing Zuko’s hair away from his feverish face. Pathetic. (Somewhere deep inside, one of the many pieces of her that Ozai tried to break, she feels almost happy for Zuko.) 

“Zuko will live,” Azula says. She knows more than they do, and knowledge is power. She can feel that power in how they startled when she walked in, their wide eyed looks at her, the way Mai places her hand back into her lap. “Though, I guess I’m fated to be the pretty sibling.” 

Azula isn’t quite sure if that she meant it as a jab or a joke. But Mai’s lips quirk just a bit at that, underneath all of that sadness. Ty Lee just stares at Azula, her uncanny gray eyes watery. 

“You were so brave, Azula,” Ty Lee says. 

Azula sets her jaw. “I would like to be alone with my brother,” she snaps. 

Ty Lee cocks her head to the side, her flightiness traded for sincerity. “I hope you believe me. You did a very brave thing. I’m sure Zuko will say the same when he wakes up.” 

Azula sees red. She was not brave — it was honorless of her to kill Father. (Her mind tells her it was an Agni Kai. Her mind tells her Father would have killed Zuko. Her mind has always been a traitor.) 

“Get out!” she yells, flames streaming from her hands like the tears she won’t let fall. “Get out! Get out!” 

Mai and Ty Lee don’t move. Azula sees fear on their faces, but something else too. (Concern?) 

“It’s okay to be upset,” Ty Lee says quietly. “You did the right thing, but the right thing was hard. There’s no shame in being confused.” 

“I’m not confused!” Azula yells. 

(Internally, Ty Lee notes that Azula’s aura is the lightest it’s been since she was little. It lightened the second Ozai fell.) 

“We’re here for you,” Ty Lee says. “For you and Zuko. That hasn’t changed.” 

Ty Lee looks at Mai to back her up. Mai sighs. “You two are the least boring people in the capital. Of course I’ll stick around.” 

Azula almost laughs at that. Of course they’ll stick around! They are her f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ allies, they owe her, they are hers. 

But Zuko is also hers. And more people protecting Zuko is a good thing, seeing how weak and useless he is. (Azula has seen him training with the dao. It is a nonbender’s weapon, an honorless weapon. Azula begrudgingly admits he’s rather good at it.) 

Azula doesn’t like to share. But loyalty to Zuko is loyalty to her. (She ignores that Mai and Ty Lee actually make her happy. Fire Lords have no time for happiness. But Zuko might.)

**Author's Note:**

> Of course, after this lovely heart to heart Azula goes to kill/yell at the guards who let Mai and Ty Lee in the first place because DID THEY SERIOUSLY JUST LET TWO PEOPLE INTO THE PRINCE'S SICKROOM WITHOUT RUNNING IT BY HER OR UNCLE THEY WILL FEEL NO MERCY. 
> 
> Title from Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins  
> "I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again."


End file.
